A Clean Sweep

SPOILER ALERT:  I swope off on a bit of a tangent down below, but hey -- the info I shared is as vital as it is nugatory!

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Yesterday’s post included this bit of info from George Monteiro’s book Robert Frost and the New England Renaissance about Frost’s poem “Blue-Butterfly Day”:

"It is altogether fitting, therefore, that Frost, his mind on midwinter, sees his butterflies flurrying down like snowflakes to ‘freshly sliced’ graves in the April mud.  For Frost, fragility sems to equate butterflies with snowflakes.  Even in ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snow Evening,’ Frost echoes this theme when, playing on Dickinson’s phrase, ‘easy sweeps of sky,’ he writes of ‘the sweep / Of easy wind and downy flake.’”

Also in yesterday's post I noted that Dickinson’s phrase “easy sweeps of sky” is line 8 of “My Cocoon tightens – Colors tease,” one of Dickinson’s butterfly-themed poems I’d written about earlier in the week. 

Below left:  Robert Frost's  "sweep of easy wind and downy flake" in "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening."  Below right:  Emily Dickinson's "easy Sweeps of Sky" from "My cocoon tightens -- Colors tease."

Finally, I closed yesterday's post with, “Tomorrow I’ll take a closer look at sweeping in Dickinson’s poetry" -- so let's get sweeping!

I ran several searches on the Dickinson Archive:

“Sweep” generated 19 entries representing 7 poems, 6 of which include the word “sweep.”

“Sweeps” brought up 15 results representing 5 poems, 3 of which include the word “sweeps” (vs. “sweep”).
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“Swept” yielded 20 entries representing 8 poems, all of which include the word “swept.”

“Sweeping” produced 8 entries representing 3 poems 2 of them include the word “sweeping”; one of them has “sweeping” as an alternate word choice for the word “trailing.”

Additionally, from the Dickinson Lexicon, I looked up the ways in which Dickinson used the words “sweep,” “sweeps,” “swept,” and “sweeping” in her poetry:

That very first statement is certainly chock-full of options to pick from, no?  Are there any surprises there for you?  

Before getting into Dickinson's poems, I thought I'd take a look at that "OE form of swope" in the OED and report on some of what I found.. 

The first entry for "swope" (below on the left) was, indeed, related to "sweep."  On the right is a usage from the 1200s, and it seems to have something to do with "swoping" to get rid of pet odors!  LOL!

The next entry connected "swope" to "soap," and on the right is one example of usage from the 1400s describing "waisching with oyl and swope."  However, most of the OED usage examples showed the word as "sape," "saep," "saip" or "sope."  The first example with "soap" was from 1687 -- and it's sounds like whoever was making the trades really wanted (and probably needed) soap!  LOL.

The next definition of "swope" was related to making a "swap." -- but take a look at that usage from the 1300s on the right -- looks like someone made a questionable swap!  LOL. Next, take a gander at that example from 1577 (NSFW?).  Hmm...I wonder was being swapped there in the darke.  

Yet another entry for "swope" showed it as a variant of "swoop" -- and check out that use from 1698 -- those must have been some ferocious hawks!

The final entry for "swope" relates the word to drinking, and it mentions "a sup" -- but, interestingly, not "a sip."  Also, none of the usage examples show the variant, "swope."  However, take a look at that example from the mid-1500s which uses "sope" and discusses a smoky ale.  Did you catch from volume's name from which the statement was taken?  LOL.  Now that's the kind of knowledge we can all use!

I did encounter a few other surprises with the Lexicon's definitions for Dickinson's use of "sweep," but I'll get to those tomorrow.  For now, let's take a look at her use of "sweeping," a term found in two poems, “A single Clover Plank” and “The bustle in a house.”  One other poem, “Like Men and Women Shadows walk,” showed up in my search of the archive; however, the word “sweeping” was not used in the poem; instead, it was written on the page as a possible alternate choice for “trailing” in line 4.

In “The Bustle in a House,” “sweeping” is used in a typical fashion – associated with cleaning – but metaphorically speaking in dealing with grief following a death. 

In “A single Clover Plank,” the wind – described as “The Billows of Circumference” – was “sweeping” a bee away. Fortunately, a bit of clover idly swaying in the gust saved the bee, who escaped the “harrowing event” without as much as uttering an “Alas.”